I've used an Austeyr for 3 weeks while doing Australian Army recruit training. So while I haven't been in combat of course, I have still used it.
Positive aspects.
-Easy to strip and clean. Much easier than I thought it would be. I was able to strip and reassemble the Aug off by heart after one lesson on stripping, and most of the other recruits were in the same position.
-Compact and light of course.
-1.5 scope isn't brilliant but its helpful.
-Can easily be changed for left handed shooters.
-Lower recoil than I expected.
-Has a button on the base of the trigger to prevent full-auto fire if desired.
-See through mags.
Negative aspects.
-If you stab a hard object like a tree trunk with the bayonet attached don't be surprised if the barrel bends...
-The barrel gets damn hot, damn quickly. Once fired 12 or so blank rounds during a lesson at a slow semi-auto pace, accidently touched the barrel and instantly pulled my hand away. It wouldn't have burnt my hand in any way if I held it there, but it was unexpected.
-Because the barrel heats quickly you have no choice but to utilise the forward adjustable hand grip, problem is its damned uncomfortable if you have large hands. The ergonomic design didn't work for me, and the grip itself was to short.
-While its great that the design of the crosshairs allow you to instantly tell if a human target is at a certain distance, because there is no central point to the crosshair just a bold circle with four lines pointing ourward
(i.e. |
--O--
| (very rough eg.)) aiming for exact points on the targets required a bit of guess work.
-Trigger guard/pistol grip design was definately not intended for people with small hands. I have large hands so it wasn't a problem for me, but I noticed people with small hands, especially females, having difficulty with the 3rd firearm safety rule. And the lack of some sort of rubber grip on the pistol handle was slightly annoying in warm weather.
-Although I never witnessed it, its apparently easy to break the bolt cocking handle on the side of the rifle. Especially if your scaling walls etc. while holding the rifle. And the fact that in order to adequatly see if the weapon is on safe when placed on the ground, because the safe is on the other side you have to rest the weapon on the cocking handle itself. Which probably increases the chance of it breaking.
So overall while it does have its faults, if its all you had in a firefight as well as fragmenting 5.56 ammo it will do the job.
So I'd say that along with the M-16, as long as you keep it clean and so forth it'll be ok.
However one recruit in my room had done recruit training 10 years ago and was returning to the Army. The first time he trained he used the SLR which I take it was the Australian FN FAL. Having used both he preferred the SLR in that it was a stronger, more rugged rifle. No plastic for him.
Also he appreciated the fact that in order to clean a SLR with a barrel full of mud all that was required was to fire the rifle. Or so he said.
[Edited by Deadman on 06-05-2001 at 10:58 PM]
